


shaking the wings of their terrible youth

by astridgracee



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Abandonment, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Adopted TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bird Hybrid TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Exiled TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Gen, Winged TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Wingfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 16:55:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30024903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astridgracee/pseuds/astridgracee
Summary: in which tommy grows his wings, dream is there for him and techno has regrets
Relationships: Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Comments: 31
Kudos: 361





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is a multi-chapter fic inspired by a oneshot on my page, which i was harassed by my friends to rewrite as a long fic so here we are

Tommy had spent the first seven years of his life in a home with parents who adored him, where he felt secure and safe and  _ happy.  _ He was a child who found comfort in the scent of flowers that followed his mother and the way his father’s hands felt against his own when they walked along the forest path together. He was only young, but he knew enough to know what unconditional love felt like. 

He was still a child when he woke up one morning entirely alone. The house was empty, hallways haunted by the memories of them for the weeks following their sudden disappearance. He was only young when all of a sudden, he had to learn to make his own sandwiches for lunch and grow his own food for dinner. 

He taught himself how to survive without them, trying his best to avoid the well-worn forest pathways when he went out hunting at only eight years old. The scent of peonies disgusted him and the idea of a family became taboo in his mind. He grew up painfully fast and had to fend for himself when he shouldn't. 

It was on one of his excursions into the wild that he first met Wilbur. He had been trekking through the trees he knew like the back of his hand when he encountered the terrified teenager. 

He was sitting huddled up beside a tree and was shaking like a leaf when he spotted Tommy through his hands clutched to his face. He had taken in the sight of the child and stood quickly. His rapid-fire questioning was exhausting for Tommy to witness, he only shrugged in response and asked where the boy had come from. 

The boy had informed him that his name was Wilbur and he didn't intend to tell a stranger where he was staying,  _ thank you very much.  _ Tommy had grinned slightly at the boy's indignant tone and said that he could lead the boy back or he could leave him in the wood copse alone. 

Wilbur had taken one look around at the sun setting in the sky and rapidly darkening forest before informing Tommy that he was staying at the nearest village.

Tommy gestured for the boy to follow and brought him through the winding path he'd memorised, the laughter bursting from him an unfamiliar feeling, but not one that he disliked. He said goodbye at the edge of the village and disappeared back into the trees, not expecting to ever encounter the other boy again.

(Wilbur told Phil with a luminous grin about the feral child that had brought him home, already attached to the young boy with a bright personality that somehow seemed to still hate companionship. Phil still thought about how that day had changed their entire lives.)

Phil hadn't quite kidnapped Tommy, he just left out food for him enough that Tommy slowly started trusting him and before he knew it, the boy had his own bedroom and was a member of their household. Tommy had become family quickly, despite his obvious reservations that still lingered, he trusted them.

He didn't seem to see Phil as a dad in the same way Techno and Wilbur did at first, he just treated him the very same as he treated the twins. Mildly disrespectful and always up for mischief. Phil would be lying if he said he wasn't instantly fond of the child, and as he raised the boy, the feeling of warmth only grew to be fully developed love. Tommy became his son. 

The young boy always got along with Wilbur best, his adoptive brother being the only one capable of calming Tommy from a meltdown. The sound of Wilbur's guitar seemed to be a favourite of Tommy's and they bonded quickly, fast friends despite their regular arguments that they retained even as they grew up. 

With Techno, Tommy seemed to struggle a little more, his loud personality contrasting Techno's search for solitude and silence. They were at odds constantly, but Tommy adored Techno's sword fighting skill and Techno admired Tommy's bravery and resilience and before they knew it, it was all too easy for them to fall together like puzzle pieces, fitting like brothers. 

(With his two brothers, Tommy had witnessed their change. The transformation that occurred in hybrids was a peak moment of importance and Tommy was barely introduced to them before he was watching them grow wings and horns and  _ change.  _ He was still so new to them, but the bonds formed during the transition were permanent and he was a part of their family afterwards, parental abandonment and familial trauma be damned.)

(With Phil, it wasn't the same, he hadn't been around to watch Phil grow the glorious raven wings he bore. Instead, Phil adopted him as part of his flock and Tommy was left a supposed human in his clan of hybrids.)

They were a family, thrown together with trauma and a messy past and stuff that they avoided talking about  _ because who wants to discuss how totally fucked they are. _

His newfound family taught him so much, but a consistent lesson they instilled in his conscious mind was that they were there. They would always be there no matter what because he was their son and their brother and their best friend. 

He supposed that was poetic irony when he ended up by himself with them being the common denominator in his isolation. He was stuck lying in the rain on the cobblestone path, throat burning from yelling and eyes watering without a soul in sight to help.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning for graphic injury and vomiting

Irony was a little bitch that Tommy would stab if he survived the complete agony that overcame his entire being. When he'd collapsed, his mind had jumped to the intentional starvation he found himself falling prey to, but he'd known it wasn't that as soon as he felt something move beneath the tender skin of his back. 

He had thought he was a regular human but the sensation of bony flesh moving under his skin convinced him otherwise pretty quickly. He screamed when he felt the first tearing sensation, his voice wobbling with every broken sob. 

He wasn't meant to be alone, he was meant to be with his family. He'd been there for the growth of their wings, they hadn't always been certain as to whether he contained the genetics to grow a pair so they'd assumed he was human and moved on. They'd always been conscious of the maybe that followed that though and were careful to check for the signs. They had always been cautious because the worst thing for a hybrid to experience was to have to suffer through their transformation alone.

They had planned for the morph's of his brothers, had discussed the possibility of his own. He was meant to have Phil pressing a cool towel to the feverish skin of his forehead. He was supposed to be distracted by Techno reciting familiar myths or Wilbur playing his own songs in an attempt to take his mind off the slow process. 

(He tried to avoid the thoughts that rotated in his mind telling him that he would be just like Phil if he grew wings, constantly craving the freedom of the wind regardless of whether you had responsibilities. His heart dropped at the thought of being anything like his estranged parent.) 

Instead he was left on the ground, in such pain that he couldn't even stand up to stumble towards shelter in his tent. He felt the rain pelting against his spine and stiffened before relaxing into the freezing cold temperature. The cold brought relief from the sharp pain, but it brought with it risks of pneumonia. He tried to pull himself forward, crying out when the movement pulled on the new cuts forming on his upper back. His desperate shrieks were unheard by their intended audience, his family too distanced physically to hear and too distanced emotionally to even care. 

(They hadn't even visited him when he was exiled weeks ago, he shouldn't have expected them to show up at all.) 

When a pair of warm hands touched his shoulder hesitantly he froze, unable to escape the familiar touch. He knew who had the same featherlight fingertips, had felt them running through his hair before all the wars had torn them apart. 

"Dream. You're here." Tommy's voice broke when he whispered the short words because his world was changing intrinsically and Dream was there. 

"Oh Tom." A pained note rang in Dream's voice as he pulled Tommy up into his arms, cradling the teenager that was all skin and bones as he would a child. 

Tommy's gaze was hazy due to the raindrops that collided with his lashes but he could see through the water a sight he never expected to witness. Dream's face was uncovered, green eyes staring at Tommy with familial concern. 

Tommy winced with every step, trying to restrain his cries when Dream laid him down on the mat he'd been sleeping on. Dream didn't leave once he brought the boy into the shelter, he didn't walk away, didn't shy away from the agony Tommy expressed through shrieks of utter agony. 

Dream stayed. 

He stayed and he only left when he was gathering a bucket of water for cooling the younger boy down. He held Tommy's hand and didn't pull away when his hand was crushed in the vice-like grasp. He talked and talked but not about mythology, he talked about tense moments when he would play the dangerous game of Manhunt with his best friends, he talked about the breakneck speed of the ender dragon's magic, he talked about how the endermen glowed a brighter shade of purple when they were in the End, how the End Cities were some of the most beautiful things to exist. 

Dream stayed and with his presence, Tommy's recent memories were screaming, telling him of war and exile and explosions, warning him of the danger that came with the admin's company. In stark contrast, the side of his brain that he'd inherited along with his bird genetics cried out for a flock and his own mind betrayed him by reminding him of days before independence was a commodity, where Dream would listen to his discs with him in the Community House when he missed his brothers and Dream comforted him by telling him stories as they watched the stars. Dream had been as close as a brother for a long time and he was drowning in the memories of being protected and having that bond with someone who stayed around.

Tommy knew how hybrid species worked, knew that if a person was there when your traits began to show, your hindbrain would become attached. They were there at your weakest and now they were permanent no matter what your prior relationship was. He knew that no matter what Dream had done in the past, he could look right by it because Dream stayed when no one else had even shown up. 

He reached out a weak palm when he was finally about to succumb to slumber, searching for Dream's hand to clasp. Instead, Dream lay down on the ground beside him and Tommy pulled the other man's arm close to his chest, clutching the limb tightly and burrowing his head into the warm fabric of Dream's hoodie. 

(The way he clutched Dream's arm was just like how he used to hug Techno, when the older would come home from a particularly dangerous mission. He hugged Dream like he was family because as far as Tommy was concerned, now he was.) 

He fell asleep with the warmth of family surrounding him and he completely forgot about the people who he'd been searching for so desperately, entirely focused on the one who'd actually been there.

Dream was entirely still where he lay, half-covered by a blanket Tommy had haphazardly thrown over him in a sleep-addled state. He wanted nothing more than to be capable of standing and walking away, going back to his intended destruction of L'Manberg.

He had a plan, he was meant to get Tommy on his side in a way that inspired complete loyalty but he wouldn't have to become emotionally attached on the way. The situation he found himself in would have been perfect if it weren't for the unfortunate fact that his hindbrain was doing little more than cooing at the teenager nestled into his shoulder.

The sight of the soft down covering his newly grown wings and the way it matched the messy waves of his hair made him weak. He was so close to complete emotional detachment but when Tommy pulled him closer when he tried to pull away, he fell into utter adoration immediately. 

He had thought he was done with the boy when the wars had first begun. He thought that the second he had shot that arrow and very nearly taken his life that the days of brotherhood between the two were done. 

Clearly, he was wrong since here he was, obsessing over whether the younger boy was safe and whether the temperature was right and whether he'd caught a fever while out in the rain or not. He was acting the same way he had when the teenager first showed up and wiggled his way into the lives of Dream and his best friends.

Before the wars, Tommy had always acted like a younger brother, his tendencies to immediately force a familial bond with people around him not being something Dream was immune to.

Dream had missed having that bond with anyone, but now, with Tommy laying close by him, silent in slumber, his hindbrain was screaming the word flock and he realised he'd found that relationship once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tommy and dream being brothers pog. also jealous techno coming soon this is epic.


	3. Chapter 3

Techno woke from his slumber with a piercing headache and a feeling in his gut that told him something was off. The voices were screaming but when he tuned into their incessant cries, he could only make out the name of the servers admin and the word protect multiple times. Based on the context clues, they must have been speaking about another person, since he would never in a million years purposefully protect the masked man.

Phil had just preened his feathers two nights ago, which meant the magenta and rose pink feathers weren't in disarray just yet, the widespread shape intended for speed in flight a characteristic both he and his twins' wings had shared. He stretched out lazily, arms moving slowly but stopping in mid-air when he saw Ghostbur outside in the snow, his ghostly form floating in what Techno perceived to be his version of angry pacing. 

It was a little less intimidating to see his brother's face furrowed in anger when he could also see the trails of blue wool the ghost was dropping in the snow. 

Techno pulled his red cloak over his shoulders, stepping out into the snow, the white substance crunching beneath his untied boots. Ghostbur looked up at him and the utter desolation in his expression astounded Techno. He was honestly not aware the ghost felt anything other than bright overwhelming happiness. 

"What's up Ghostbur?" The reluctance in Techno's voice was rooted in the fear he had that something had occurred to his father and that was why Ghostbur was acting so strange. He didn't expect it when he heard Ghostbur frantically whispering the name of his youngest brother. 

"Tommy. Um- Something changed with Tommy. At least, I think so. I don't know, I can't really remember."

Techno's heart dropped and he forced himself to ignore the conflicting rise of the strong emotions he felt at the mention of Tommy, "Is it a good change?"

"I don't know." Ghostbur's voice was beyond confused and his transparent brow furrowed, "I hope it was good. I- I just remember that I had to come get you. You need to check on him, you just _need_ to make sure he's okay."

* * *

Techno was a little unsure why he agreed to leave the comfort of the snow biome and head to where Tommy was living out his exile. It could have been the sheer desperation in Ghostbur's tone, or the worry that would emanate from Phil once he found out something was wrong, or even his own innate sense of fear that something had happened to his brother. It didn't really matter anyway, because he was a few minutes away from Logstedshire and he would see his brother no matter what. 

When Ghostbur had told him that a change had occurred, he had presumed it was a particularly bad haircut or maybe a change of heart regarding his stance on governments. When he reached the break in the trees and saw his younger brother, the change was a lot bigger than he'd expected. 

He had planned to arrive and mercilessly bully the child about managing to get himself exiled. (Because Techno told him so at the start.) He didn't foresee the giant wings that were folded behind Tommy's back. He didn't expect to show up with a wicked grin and a plan, and somehow end up brutally discovering that he'd missed his brother's metamorphosis. 

If the brilliant wings Tommy had on his back were any sign, it was not an extremely recent thing but it was definitely after he'd been exiled. They were large and black, with gold at the tips. They were beautiful in their unique colouring and shape, nothing like the wide black raven wings Phil had. As thrilled Techno was that Tommy had wings now, he was beyond upset that he'd missed it. His own brain was raging at the loss, his brother had been there for him when his pink wings had shown up and yet he hadn't visited, hadn't seen the signs, hadn't managed to ensure his position in Tommy's flock. That thought triggered another heartstopping thought, one that caused his mind to panic. 

**_you've been replaced_ **

**_techno is a bad brother confirmed_ **

**_replacement arc_ **

**_should've visited more_ **

Had his brother been alone? He hoped not, maybe Ghostbur had been there to provide some comfort, maybe even a member of his dreaded nation had been there. Techno's face dropped and his hope disappeared when he saw someone seated behind Tommy, pale green wings adorning their back and mask nowhere to be seen. 

(Of all the people in the world who had to be there, of course it ended up being the green bastard himself.)

Techno had developed a rivalry with the man at some point, not over their fighting prowess ( _Techno knew he was far superior_ ) but over Techno's youngest brother who Dream seemed to think was his own. Techno hadn't noticed at first, the way Tommy drifted or how he didn't ask for Techno's help as much but Techno definitely noticed when all of a sudden, any attempt for him to communicate was his brother was declined and he was left stumped as to why. 

It had all made sense when he saw Tommy interact with Dream, saw how they bounced off each other, saw how Dream's sharp breaths of laughter could send Tommy into a fit of hysterics.. He saw how his brother found someone who fit his personality perfectly, and for the first time in long time, Techno had felt inadequate. Back then, he'd gotten over it rather quickly, as he watched their relationship fall apart but right now the feeling was burning in him like an open flame. 

He was _jealous_. 

Dream was running his fingers through Tommy's wings, picking out feathers and laughing with a wide grin. Tommy was smiling too, his voice loud and energetic and painfully happy.

Dream was fucking preening his little brother, a job reserved for family. Instead of watching from behind a tree as a replacement secured his place in Tommy's family, Techno should have been the one carefully tucking feathers into place and removing the flecks of dirt from the set of wings. Wilbur should have been sitting across from them, strumming his guitar while poking fun at Tommy. Phil should have been holding Tommy's hand and complementing the unique colouring of his feathers. 

They should have been family but instead Techno was being haunted by the ghost of his dead brother, his father was trapped in a government controlled nation and his little brother had replaced him with Dream.

Techno didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to function with the information he gained, so he ducked back into the shadows behind the trees, palms shaking as he sat down against the trunk of the tree. The steadiness of the bark behind him grounded him in the setting and he focused on controlling his breathing. 

The world was going to shit and Techno didn't know how to deal with it. His own heart was shattering at the thought of what he missed- _was currently still missing_ and the voices were roaring in barely controlled anguish. They were vengeful and upset and Techno was so damn tired that he let his head fall back against the tree, his ears ringing, mind- and heart- hurting from what he'd learned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this story lives in my mind rent free and i need someone to talk about it to i am going out of my mind please

**Author's Note:**

> i am enjoyed the angst while writing this and would really appreciate feedback  
> (while posting this i am watching wilbur's stream doing improv with tommy and jack and i am crying with laughter)


End file.
